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The beginning

The Station, and how it all started

Dismantling of radio gear and antennas
Back in 2006, at the beginning of the project, the working group visited the ship. At that moment she was in Wilhelmshafen in Northern Germany. It was obviously a tremendous experience to visit the ship in its original state. During that visit, we were able to view the original radio hut. Most of the furniture was still there, but apart from an old telex machine all the radio equipment had been removed.
Attempts to recover the whereabouts were unfortunately unsuccessful.
The interior of the ship was very impressive. Of course we have inspected the new radio hut on the bridge. All radios and other communication gear was still installed. Considering the situation, we were very happy to learn that the installation was still very much functional. But would it remain that way during the intensive restoration, which was coming up?

Back in Holland, the working group developed a plan to dismantle the original radio equipment and antennas, and to revive and restore these in the Netherlands. A project plan was quickly written and agreed with the project organization.
The plan was executed in 2006. Prior to the dismantling we couldn't help ourselves: we had to make a few QSO's on the 20 meter band. The radios and antennas functioned fine! We used our private call signs to make some contacts with British and Italian stations. We silently expected a pile-up, but alas! Better still, since we had a lot of work to do. We managed to dismount and pack all the radios, antennas, displays, terminals and printers and took them home to Rotterdam. We packed the antennas in special plastic tubing, which were to be shipped by truck on a later date. All dismantling information was described in detail, and all loose wires were marked, to make re-mounting as easy as possible. When this could be done, was still unclear.

All equipment has been verified and tested. Everything appeared to be in working order. The antennas were thoroughly overhauled, since these had suffered a lot from the salty sea environment. A number of volunteers have worked hard during this period.